We've been studying, as a church, the greatest commandment from Mark 12:
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?""The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
In the Sunday lessons, we've covered many aspects of this scripture outside of the four parts of ourselves that we are to love God with. Of those, the lessons have covered two – our hearts and our minds. Lessons on our soul and strength are yet to come.
Q - Looking at the things mentioned in verse 30, which if those do you feel is most important? Why?
An argument could likely be made for each of the four:
- Heart – Our heart is the essence of our devotion and consciousness.
- Soul – It represents our very being. It's what will live on in heaven for eternity.
- Mind – Our intellect, our reasoning power. It can overcome the ups and downs of our emotional heart.
- Strength – It is with our strength, through prayer, study, charity, etc, that we act on the convictions of our heart and reasoning of our mind.
Each of us has strengths and weaknesses. Some might be logical and find that makes it easy to give our mind to God, but hard to invest emotionally. Others find that hard work for God comes easy, but deep thinking and study is challenging.
In reality, the question was a bit of a trick. In my view, the most important thing mentioned in verse 30 is 'all'. The point is that God wants all of us, period. No one aspect is more important than the others.
All of these aspects work together to draw us nearer to God as we practice them. Focusing on one over the others may actually not accomplish what God intended.
Q – Can you think of some ways that might that be?
- A focus on the heart might lead to an emotional, rollercoaster faith
- A focus on the mind may lead to a cold, legalistic faith. Bible worship instead of God worship.
- A focus on our strength may lead to a performance based faith where our worth to the Father is determined by our deeds.
- A focus on our soul is a little more challenging. Perhaps it may manifest itself in the 'God created me like this, so it must be acceptable to him' philosophy.
These aspects of our selves are intertwined and inseparable. God intended that we devote all of ourselves, every aspect of ourselves, to him. We must be careful to not let our preferences, our strengths or our weaknesses make our devotion to God one or two faceted.
Q – What areas do you find it easy and hard to give God all of? Why?
I feel as though God is teaching me this very lesson. I tend to be ruled by my thinking and reasoning and my emotions. (Perhaps a strange combination, but there you go.) I tend to give God all my heart and mind, but neglect my soul and strength. I tend to think about spiritual things quite a bit but neglect the actual spiritual work of Bible study, prayer, relationships.
Recently, I've felt him calling me to give all of my strength in these areas. A renewed call to study and pray – to give Him all of my strength as well. It's a realization that the acting out of our faith is not just items on a check list, they are real spiritual activities. They work together with my emotions, mind and soul to draw me closer to God. They complete the work of my mind and heart.
In closing, I thought it would be good to turn this around and think about how God loves us.
Q – How would you describe God's Love?
There's a song by Matthew West called More (Windows Media clip on his website here) played on The River that just blows my mind each time I hear it. The lyrics are sung from God's perspective:
I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine and you shine for me too
I love you yesterday and today
And tomorrow I'll say it again and again
I love you more
I don't know of a verse that teaches that explicitly, although Jesus did say that we are worth more than many Sparrows.
But …
What mountain, star, planet, galaxy, ocean or continent was made in God's image?
What tree, flower, vine, weed or grass was given the emotions and reason of man?
What tiger, eagle, dinosaur, chimp, dolphin or whale did God send his son to Earth to die for?
Read those lyrics again and picture God speaking them to you. In my mind, God doesn't speak, He simply observes. Every time I hear that song, I see him singing to me and it gives me chills.
God loves us with everything. He's only asking the same from us in return.
It's funny how different people translate the word love. One may see it as meaning a type of giving, or offering, while another might consider it a devotion. To devote ones self makes it a requirement. It makes it an act or responsibility. Meanwhile, to offer ones self up spiritually, as requested by God through other scripture is an act of lovingness to the Father. More so, an act of lovingness to others. It is important that we don't take a singular scripture, and analyze each word, while missing the wholeness of it. I don't think the point is to look at each aspect individually, as to looking at them wholly. Your entire existence is – perhaps "devoted", or perhaps "offered" – to God: Period! But there is a means to this end, and that is what Paul, Peter, and John work so hard to convey with their epistles. I John has some very specific direction when it comes to how to love God, and Ephesians and Colossians has some amazing detail about how to do that. Sometimes, singular scripture study must mature into the wholeness of the entire message.
"But we only had 20 minutes." you might say.
Perhaps, that may be, but that is enough time to lead the crowds. Moreover, perhaps we should just take more time. Kids are resilient and will make up for lost sleep; and the rest of us will just adjust.
I think that we are taught at a young spiritual age that loving God means to devote ourselves to Him. But I think that this is a sociological underwriting to the concept of loving God. It think that it is an attachment to the McKean paradigm, and that it is dangerous talk. Perhaps I am scarred, well, I know that is the case. But words like "devote" lead to merciless evangelism and emotional destitution. Perhaps loving God is acting compassionate towards Him. Be compassionate to God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. That sounds a little different than devote…
I'm completely with you on this Paul. We must take the whole of the passage rather than parse it word for word. Much damage is done trying to determine what 1 or 2 words mean. In the process the point of the whole was missed. I don't think that God intended us to dissect it word by word.
That was the point I was trying to make, and perhaps I missed the mark. (Or perhaps I missed your point. :-D ) I was attempting to illustrate how God has been teaching me that there is harmony between these parts of our love for God. What we do with our strength (evangelism, church attendance, service to the poor, discipling, etc.) is only of value if our hearts and minds are engaged as well. Our heartfelt devotion and intellectual pursuits of scripture are only as valuable as what we do with them.
In fact, as we give of ourselves in each are, one influences the other. Our study not only prompts us to act, it may alter what we intend to do. Perhaps less evangelism, more service to the poor. Our service to the poor softens our hearts to God. They are absolutely entwined and inseparable.
As far as 'devoting', I think it's a matter of semantics to some degree. Certainly words mean things, but to me, a devotion isn't an obligation except that I have obligated myself. No one can devote me to anything. They may expect me to do this or that, and I may agree to follow that, but I devote myself to what ever it is.
God has certainly called us to absolute devotion. He expects nothing less. Where we get in trouble is thinking we can legislate devotion. We cannot. We can help folks get there and stay there, but their devotion is up to them.
Anyway, as I said it's semantics, we are on the same page.
Thanks for the thoughts.
I guess what I am thinking, or trying to re-word, is that we can get more devoted to being devoted, than we can to what we are supposed to be devoted to. That may not sound like it makes sense, but it does to me. I think that we can work so hard at being a Christian, that we forget Christ. We can be more focused on the what than than the why. I still don't know if I am wording that right. The end doesn't justify the means, but the journey IS the arrival. Oh gosh, that was just corney. Anyway, I hope you understand more as to what I was trying to say. I think that I understand what you are saying. Of course there are over a dozen New Testament references to the word devote or devotion. In fact, devotion is a command, not just a concept. I think also that I might be a little hyper reactive--still--to some issues that linger in an unhealthy way. Regardless, I think we are on the same page. We usually are...
Yeah, I think we are on the same page. Sometime I have a hard time telling the difference between someone trying to get me to see their view of an issue and just passionately adding to what I've already said. :-P
Devotion to being devoted is certainly a possibility. We've been down that road, haven't we? I can also completely relate to being hyper reative to some stuff. It's frustrating at times. I wonder, is this really a big deal or is it only a big deal to me because of where I'm at and where I've been?
Try to sort that one out and you'll end up depressed and with a migraine.